


Pas de Deux

by elicitillicit



Series: Paint it Black [1]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: 10 points if you can spot the Mean Girls reference, Alternate Universe, F/M, drug-dealing lucius and bella, everything is super shady, it comes together i promise, narcissa does ballet
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-29
Updated: 2015-09-29
Packaged: 2018-04-24 00:11:24
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,993
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4897675
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/elicitillicit/pseuds/elicitillicit
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Narcissa is tired, boneless, aching, and sweaty after three hours of rehearsal and the last thing that she wants to do is walk in on her sister and her sister’s weird, drug-dealing, oddly attractive associates in her family’s restaurant-standard kitchen cooking meth. </p><p>Obviously, that’s just what happens.</p><p>There’s Bella, a sulky-looking hulk who looks like he spends more time at the gym than he does anything else in his life, and the pissy blonde elf straight out of the less impressive Hobbit film trilogy (Thranduil? Right?) who’s sporting a manbun, a tattoo sleeve, and a T-shirt with “Peace! Land! Bread!” emblazoned in drippy red font that he’s paired with a limited edition Rolex.</p><p>Is irony still a thing?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Pas de Deux

1142h – **Cissy**

1143h – **Are mom and dad coming home for dinner tonight**

1145h – _No_

1145h – _They’re having dinner with the lawyer_

1146h – **Company lawyer or dad’s saviour lawyer**

1147h – _Wills and probate lawyer_

1147h – _They’re writing Andy out_

1150h – **Lol yes finally**

1150h – _I get where they’re coming from_

1151h – _Trailer park trash is still trailer park trash_

1152h – _And his family is weird and gross_

1153h – **Gross like they don’t brush their teeth gross or**

1155h – _Gross like I think two of his dad’s siblings went away for four months and came back married or sth_

1156h – **Ew**

1157h – **None of that in our family**

1158h – **Right**

1159h – _Um_

1159h – _Uncle Orion and Aunty Walburga are cousins_

1201h – **But they’re second cousins**

1202h – _Um_

1203h – **You have your cousins, then you have your first cousins, then you have your second cousins**

1204h – _No Bella I don’t think that’s right_

1205h – _But anyways_

1205h – _Disowning Andy_

1205h – _Like_

1206h – _That’s a bit harsh?_

1207h – **Well like mom said**

1207h – **You can’t eat love**

1208h – **So like**

1208h – **They can now not eat love**

1208h – **Together**

1209h – **Without mooching off mom and dad**

1210h – _I think that was their point though_

1210h – **Wtv I’m bored of this conversation**

1211h – **Do you still have your lab goggles from high school**

1212h – _Yeah just ask Karolina where she put them_

1213h – _Why_

1224h – _Bella_

1225h – _Bella_

1225h – _Bella_

1232h – _Ugh you suck_

* * *

Narcissa is tired, boneless, aching, and sweaty after three hours of rehearsal and the last thing that she wants to do is walk in on her sister and her sister’s weird, drug-dealing, oddly attractive associates in her family’s restaurant-standard kitchen cooking meth. 

Obviously, that’s just what happens.

There’s Bella, a sulky-looking hulk who looks like he spends more time at the gym than he does anything else in his life, and the pissy blonde elf straight out of the less impressive Hobbit film trilogy (Thranduil? Right?) who’s sporting a manbun, a tattoo sleeve, and a T-shirt with “ _Peace! Land! Bread!_ ” emblazoned in drippy red font that he’s paired with a limited edition Rolex.

Is irony still a thing?

Narcissa fights the urge to roll her eyes as she skirts around the kitchen island and the makeshift lab to snag an apple from the fruit bowl sitting safely by the toaster.

“ _Cissy_!” Bella shrieks, and almost drops the petri dish she’s holding. The hulk makes an actual leap for the double French doors leading to the patio before Bella pulls herself together. “I thought you were going to be at class!”

“Um. Obviously, I came home after it.” She peers suspiciously into the sink; there’s some residue at the bottom of it that she really doesn’t want to look too closely into (will the sink explode if she runs water into it?) so she decides to just rinse her apple off upstairs in her own bathroom.

“Lucius! Stop staring at my sister’s _legs_!”

She whirls around just in time to catch Bella kicking Thranduil into one of the countertops. She winces – Bella is weirdly strong and she’s always in combat boots – but he just sighs, picks himself up, and nods respectfully in her direction before turning to fiddle with a beaker.

Narcissa glares at him for a moment, eyes narrowed, before stalking off with her apple. The _nerve_! And _Lucius_? At least _Thranduil_ was the name of a _fantasy elf king_. Which parents would name their child _Lucius_?

Where does Bella _find_ these people?

* * *

1410h – _Bella_

1410h – _Bella_

1410h – _Bella_

1411h – _Bella_

1412h – _Mom just told Karolina to clean your room because it literally looks like New Orleans after Katrina_

1413h – _So if you want me to head her off before she walks into your wardrobe and tries to water your houseplants_

1414h – _You have to tell me now_

1414h – _Because I’m leaving for class_

1415h – _Like_

1415h – _NOW_

1416h – _Bella?_

1728h – **JESUS FUCKING CHRIST**

* * *

Unsurprisingly, the Great Weed Reveal does not land Bella in any sort of trouble with their parents. Their father merely inquires into the balance of profitability and risk in the drug-distributorship industry, pats Bella thoughtfully on the head and invites her associates over for dinner while he decides if he wants to speak to their boss about further business opportunities.

So that’s why Narcissa is lounging about the drawing room for post-dinner drinks trying not to look like she’s completely bored out of her skull while Bella holds court with their parents and the sulky hulk (who’s unsubtly gawping at Bella with nothing short of adoration – what’s up with _that_ , by the way?).

Lucius, who has been scrutinising the gigantic family portrait that hangs over their fireplace (their mother had gotten Andy painted over, and no matter how skilled the portrait artist was, it was _obvious_ ), seems to realise that Narcissa is _this close_ to throwing a tantrum just so that she’d have something to do. At least, that’s what she reasons when he casually moves away from the fireplace and her family and sinks gracefully into the armchair beside hers.

She eyes him beadily as he sets his glass of scotch down on the marble end table and is doubly certain that she isn’t imagining the brief glance that he directs at her legs. He cleans up pretty well, she admits – his tattoos are hidden under a long-sleeved, blue dress shirt that brings out the grey of his eyes, and his cheekbones are sharp and his jaw is strong – but he’s still got a man-bun and she isn’t sure how to feel about that.

“Narcissa, right? Bellatrix tells me that you are her _favourite_ sister.”

Something in Narcissa’s chest clenches, and she notes how her mother has shifted in her seat in order to keep better tabs on this conversation. She takes a sip from her own wineglass in a bid to have something to do with her hands. “I’m her _only_ sister,” she replies, all smiles and sunshine even though the words are ash on her tongue.

From the corner of her eye, Narcissa can see her mother nod approvingly and the sweet dessert wine abruptly turns sour in her belly.

She needs to get out of here.

She sets her glass aside, murmurs her excuses to her parents – _rehearsal, I’m behind, show on Friday_ – and leaves the room as rapidly as decorum permits, fingers scraping her hair back into a knot, stomach sucked in and chin lifted.

Lucius watches her go with unreadable eyes.

* * *

 

2230h – **Cissy wru**

2242h – **Cissy why did you leave**

2243h – **Cissy**

2244h – **Cissy**

2252h – **Omg Cissy are you actually dancing**

2258h – **It’s literally 11 at night**

2300h – **You’re going to wake up in 6 hours for a 7am rehearsal anyways**

2301h – **Can you stop dancing and come socialize**

2303h – **Cissy**

2304h – **Ugh you suck**

* * *

 

 

It was Andromeda who taught her how to throw her shoulders back, strong and level. Andy had run her fingers up four-year-old Narcissa’s spine and told her _reach for the sky, and then reach for the stars. Grow._ It was Andy who brought her bandages and surgical tape when her toes bled, and it was Andy who clapped time when Narcissa practised travelling pirouettes from one end of their home studio to the other. _Keep your core centred_ , she’d advised. _You are gravity. You pull the moon towards you_. 

The black swan does thirty-two fouettes in _Swan Lake_. Narcissa stumbles after her first twenty. Her second attempt ends at fifteen. She pushes through her third try and ends up with twenty-six.

Then she stops counting.

The world spins around her, and all Narcissa hears is Andy shouting _I love him, I love him, I love_ him.

She hates this boy; this Ted-fucking-Tonks. She hates him and his easy smile and his steady eyes and his strong shoulders.

And she hates Andy.

 _Hates_ her.

 _You weren’t supposed to leave us._ Narcissa’s left leg gives way; she shakes it out, switches her balance to her right one and keeps on going.

 _You weren’t supposed to let someone else be your centre of gravity_.

* * *

 

2330h – **Cissy**

2331h – **Cissy**

2331h – **Cissy**

2332h – **Roddy and Lucius are leaving**

2334h – **Lucius wants to know where you are**

2334h – **After you RUDELY DISAPPEARED**

2335h – **I think he’s been checking you out**

2336h – **He’s a pretty good catch tbh**

2336h – **RICH AF**

2337h – **Also he looks like that hot elf from the hobbit**

2338h – **Thranduil right**

2339h – **Not the one who married miranda kerr**

2339h – **Anyways**

2340h – **Do you want to see him before he goes**

2340h – **We can hear your stupid prancy music from the foyer**

2341h – **Cissy**

2342h – **GODDAMMIT CISSY WHY DID WE EVEN GIVE YOU A PHONE**

* * *

 

She doesn’t hear Lucius come in over the music for the Pas de Quatre – which is what she’s _actually_ supposed to be rehearsing for her company’s staging of Swan Lake.

So she gives herself a silent pat on the back when she turns her head after a pas de chat, catches sight of him in the mirror, and she doesn’t fall flat on her face in shock.

She tries to ignore him, but she’s already breathing hard and her skin is flushed from the exercise and so she figures that even if she heats up a little more at the way his serious grey eyes track her movements across the studio, no one would be the wiser.

Narcissa almost _dreads_ the arabesque that heralds the end of the dance, but it comes anyways and the music trails off into silence.

The level of awkwardness in the atmosphere kicks up about ten notches. At least, that’s what it feels like to her. Lucius still looks like butter wouldn’t melt in his mouth while Narcissa watches her sweat drip onto the sprung timber floor.

“You miss her,” he observes, and she doesn’t even pretend to not know whom he’s talking about.

She picks herself up and reaches for a towel. “I love both my sisters,” she admits, voice muffled in the fabric. She feels tears burning in the backs of her eyes, and she presses the towel harder into her skin.

His footsteps are heavy, and she doesn’t dare look up until he gently tugs the towel away from her.

Their fingers tangle in the cloth. Her heart rate accelerates.

“Family is important,” he says, and his gaze feels like a physical weight on her skin. For the first time in months, she doesn’t feel guilty for wanting Andy back.

He tucks a stray lock of hair behind her ear, and Narcissa leans into the touch.

* * *

1032h – _Bella_

1033h – _Lucius wants you to ask Riddle to give him Friday off_

1034h – _Who’s Riddle_

1034h – _Is he your boss_

1035h – _Can I just say_

1036h – _I’m not a fan of whatever you guys are doing_

1037h – _With the surprise shipment of rubber snake toys that is sitting in our kitchen_

1048h – **Why can’t Lucius ask Riddle himself**

1049h – **And why can’t he come on Friday**

1051h – _Um_

1052h – _He’s going golfing_

1053h – _With dad_

1054h – _And he says that Riddle likes you best_

1055h – _So you should do the asking_

1055h – **WHAT**

1057h – _Yeah_

1058h – _It’s a rite of passage thing?_

1059h – _For boyfriends?_

1103h – _Dad wants to schedule another game with Rodolphus so you should let him know_

1104h – **NO**

1104h – **NOT THAT**

1105h – _What sort of name is Rodolphus btw_

1105h – **RIDDLE LIKES ME BEST?**

1106h – **CISSY FOCUS**

1107h – **RIDDLE**

1107h – **ME?**

1108h – **BEST?**

1110h – _Um_

1111h – _Yes?_

1114h – **OMFG IM SCREAMING**

1115h – _Bella are you going to ask him or not_

1119h – **YEAH OK**

1120h – **I JUST**

1121h – **FUCKING**

1121h – **YES**

1128h – _Um_

1129h – _I think you should calm down_

1134h – **CISSY YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND**

1138h – _Yeah ok you’re weirding me out_

1139h – _I’m going for lunch with Lucius now_

1140h – _Don’t text me unless it’s important_

1145h – **FUCKING**

1146h – **RIDDLE**

1146h – **LIKES**

1146h – **ME**

1147h – **BEST**

1150h – _For real unless war breaks out don’t text me_


End file.
